


Ache

by Zurela



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Disability, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I didn't really write this as shance but you could def take it that way, Injury, Lance and Shiro both need a break, Lance gets real messed up, The fact that your limbs can just go away is scary as heck, and dealing with it, friends I did not edit this, robeast inspired by my beautiful pet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 15:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10833837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zurela/pseuds/Zurela
Summary: Lance's knee gets dislocated during a fight with a new robeast. He decides to ignore that for the sake of protecting his teammates, but Shiro doesn't seem to agree with that idea.





	Ache

**Author's Note:**

> I have such a way of receiving a prompt for something that should be short and sweet and totally running with it. Then again, this did a good job of recharging my writing vibes after a prettyyyyy long hiatus. I'm back, friends! Also, huge thanks to societyslostone on tumblr for this prompt! Sorta Shance-content ahead because I know they like it.
> 
> I have been writing this for like four hours and I just want to post it. No betas, we post mistakes like men. I'll maybe hopefully edit this tomorrow and update it? But not right now, and I just wanna post this, so viewer discretion is advised.

For all the fun there was to be had when flying a giant robotic lion through space, beating up bad guys and saving the universe, there was also a lot of difficulty. Even though the lions all melded with the paladins, there was still a high level of skill required to pilot something so powerful. Somehow, in all the vastness of the universe, the five chosen to pilot the lions were all fairly inexperienced.

Not to say that they didn’t catch on. Voltron had a significant number of victories under their belt that would vouch for that fact. Through all the inexperience, fear, confusion, and exhaustion, they were a good team who piloted their lions well.

But war is hard, and things go wrong.

The Galra had sent another robeast. At first, it didn’t seem like it would be too difficult a fight. It hadn’t seemed too defensive, and there were a surprising lack of glowing lasers chasing them, which was a pleasant surprise for the paladins. It had seemed so at first, since this beast resembled the lizard-like one that came before, if that one had only been composed of its arms.

They formed Voltron as a precaution, since this was too good to be true, but even then there was no attack coming their way. Taking the opportunity to try and deal some damage, or at least get a closer look at what this thing could be hiding, the team swooped in head on.

And then all hell broke loose.

It didn’t seem all that bad at first. Some sort of light engulfed them, but there was no explosion, no ripping or burning or rattling that had come to feel devastatingly familiar. Just a bright flash that blinded the team for a moment, a wash of dizziness, and then everything was fine.

Only it wasn’t fine, because Voltron wasn’t Voltron anymore. Rather, everyone was in their individual lions, far away from each other, as if they had never even bothered to form.

“Uh, guys?” Pidge’s voice cam in over the communication channel, but she was cut off as another flash, this one darker and more concentrated, came her way. It seemed that this thing did intend to fight, and didn’t intend to let the team form.

“Stay calm!” Shiro commanded. “We don’t need to form Voltron to beat that thing. If we come at it from enough angles, we should be able to catch it off guard. Just stay close, and focus.”

“Really?” Hunk’s exasperated voice came in. “That’s your advice? We’ve tried that game before, and it hasn’t worked so well in the past.”

“No other choice,” Keith chimed as his lion flew back towards the beast. 

Hunk sighed, but resigned himself to another long fight before joining in.

The robeast wasn’t going to make it that easy, though. For every blow that the paladins tried to land, two more came back at them. While the damage hadn’t been brutal, nothing had hit this thing so far, and the paladins grew weary from devoting so much focus into their attack.

“This thing is like a giant snake!” Lance exclaimed. “We can’t hit it, it’s too fast for us.”

“Really?” Pidge chimed in, sounding annoyed and tired. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Look, all I’m saying is that this isn’t working. We can’t catch it in open space where it’s free to move around like this. We need to lure it onto one of these planets so we can trap it!”

“No,” Shiro cut in. “We can’t risk that. We don’t know if these planets are inhabited, and I won’t have another Balmera situation. We stay out here where it’s safe.”

“Yeah, not safe for us!” Hunk argued.

“Even so, our goal is to protect the universe. We can’t-”

Shiro’s voice cut out as a blast shook the side of the black lion. Keith was first to react, rushing in with the red lion before being blown away, nearly crashing into Shiro as a result.

“That’s it,” Lance declared. “This thing likes to dance? Let’s dance, then.” He brought his lion into the mix as well, headed right for Shiro and Keith. Instead of attacking, though, he circled the beast before diving away from blasts. He continued his loop with ice blasts thrown every which way, before finally the robeast turned on him. 

“That’s right. Come on, ugly, let’s go.” With that, he turned his lion around and rocketed himself towards the nearest planet. The snake beast followed, both headed directly for it. Lance soon felt the pull of gravity grab him, and turned to make sure the beast still followed.

Unfortunately, Lance hadn’t taken the time to fully examine this planet. It seemed somewhat barren from far away, and it was almost as small as Earth’s moon. Despite its small size, it was apparently dense, as the gravitational pull was much stronger than he anticipated. Try as he might to gain control over his lion, this was bound to end poorly.

Lance pulled the controls of his lions with all his might, trying to at least angle his descent to avoid a direct collision. The surface approached quickly, and there were so many cliffs and rocks to crash into, and even the angle of the crash would only help so much because he was moving so fast, and-

Nothing.

Lance awoke to muffled sounds prodding at his hazy thoughts. Whatever it was, it was certainly annoying. Prying his exhausted eyes open, Lance realized he was laying on the floor of the blue lion’s cockpit, body tilted towards the wall opposite the pilot’s seat. Luckily, his helmet had stayed on, so a concussion wasn’t likely.

“Lance? Lance! What happened?”

Finally his brain cleared and the muffled sounds turned to the worried voice of his leader. “Hey Shiro,” Lane replied. “I crashed on the surface of the planet. I think the snake monster followed me.”

“Are you alright?” Hunk called out. “How bad was the crash?”

Lance looked himself over. His head felt mostly clear now, and he ran through a mental checklist to make sure he could feel everything.

Right arm? Check.

Left arm? Check.

Right leg? Check.

Left leg? Ch- wait.

He pulled himself up to rest on his elbows before looking down to his legs. The upper part of his leg felt fine, and then…

Oh god, his knee.

They weren’t supposed to face that way, were they? And they definitely weren’t supposed to hurt like that.

Then beyond that...nothing.

“Lance!”

Lance snapped himself out of his stupor. This wasn’t good, but the others couldn’t risk coming down here and crashing, either, especially if the robeast survived the crash and caught them.

“I’m good,” Lance laughed through gritted teeth. “Just a little roughed up.”

“We’re coming down,” Shiro announced.

“No!” Lance called. “Don’t, the gravity is too strong. If the robeast gets you on the way, you’ll be done for.”

“Well what should we do then?” Keith asked. “If the gravity is that strong, then we definitely shouldn’t bring the castle down.”

“Give me a few minutes to track this thing down. I think my lion is still working fine. There’s a ton of rock structures down here, I should be able to corner this thing and freeze it. Then you can come.”

“Lance-”

“Just _trust_ me, Shiro,” Lance interrupted. “I can do this.”

Shiro sighed. “Okay. Twenty minutes, then we’re coming whether you like it or not.”

Lance grimaced. “Got it.”

The comm line clicked off, and with that, the countdown began. The first challenge came with even getting to the pilot’s seat on the other side of the cockpit. Lance rolled onto his side and braced his right knee underneath him, before pulling the other one just slightly, and-

Nope nope nope nope nope nope _nope_ that was resolutely Not Happening, no sir.

Sighing, Lance let himself fall to the floor, taking care not to jostle his leg anymore. His face briefly fell to the floor, and the cool metal seeped into his cheek. Bracing himself, Lance pulled himself up onto his elbows and began dragging his limp body across the floor. Once he approached, he wrapped his hands around the edge of the seat and pulled himself into a sitting position.

This was the tough part. Luckily piloting his lion didn’t require much use of his feet once he got into the seat, but first he had to get there.

Images of his team being blasted out of the sky entered his mind, each one falling in a ball of flames like shooting stars.

Okay.

Both hands came to brace themselves on the seat, and his pelvis twisted to the side.

1.

Eyes closed.

2.

Deep breath.

3.

A scream ripped out from his throat as he pulled himself into the chair and let his knee bend against the fold of the seat. His hands gripped against the sides, knuckles white. Sweat rolled down his face and dripped onto the lip his teeth were currently biting into.

Forcing himself to focus, he moved the seat forward and grabbed the controls.

He was here. Now all he had to do was...defeat a giant snake robot. Alone. Without moving or getting himself killed.

Easy.

Luckily, his lion was responsive, as he had hoped. Seeming to understand her paladin’s discomfort, she pulled herself up slowly and methodically before rocketing off in search of the robeast.

It had crashed only a few miles away, having followed Lance’s trajectory to the surface. It had seemed to take some damage from the fall as well, which was possibly the only benefit to the situation. Unfortunately, it still seemed prepared to continue fighting, as it began uncurling itself and rose to meet Lance.

With all the speed and finesse of an actual snake, the beast lurched forward toward the blue lion, which barely dodged in time. Apparently this thing had some sort of awareness, as it seemed to understand that its blasts wouldn’t work in the rocky environment. Instead, it went for direct physical attacks.

Which was good, because that made it easier for Lance to move around. But that was also bad, because this thing only had one target.

Right. Time to run.

Maneuvering through caves and cliffs and arches wasn’t easy, for Lance or the beast. Rocks crumbled around them, pillars seemed to come out of nowhere, and even tunnels underneath the ground could lead anywhere. To some extent, this stopped being a method of luring the snake into a trap, and more of a race to not get caught. 

First, Lance tried to blast pillars and get them to crush the robot, but it continued to dodge just as it had done out in space. Next, he tried to trick it, using his clear field of vision to help him trick the beast into headbutting a cliff and destroying itself.

Ten minutes later, and the snake still chased, while Lance’s own stamina had dropped drastically. His knee was throbbing, and an uncomfortable feeling of heaviness was the only sensation coming from his lower leg. There was only one other option.

The snake had dodged everything, curved itself around edges with an almost impossible speed, all in order to chase Lance. If this thing had been designed by the Galra, its only purpose was to destroy the paladins. If Lance was what it wanted, Lance would give it that.

A gaping hole in the face of a large hill was directly ahead of the blue lion. The only thing to be seen inside was empty blackness, no exit in sight. If he could lead the beast inside and block the exit, there was no way this thing could dodge anymore. There wouldn’t _be_ anything to dodge.

Lance bulleted straight into the cave, not even attempting to orient himself in the pitch black surrounding him. The snake, as expected, followed him straight in. Looking back for only a moment, the blue lion froze the entrance over to trap them both inside.

There was nothing but darkness. A burning ache that had settled into Lance’s knee long ago had permeated his entire body. If he had to guess, he would say he’s been doing this for about fifteen minutes.

Finally, he stops. The snake doesn’t. Lance lets the energy build in his lion while the snake moves forward. Both of them slowed in the small and dark space, but he still only has about thirty seconds. Hopefully it’s enough.

The walls shake around them and tremors echo through the cave, indicative of the robeast moving around in search of its prey. This cave could cave in if either of them got reckless.

Lance is pretty reckless.

Two things happen at once. A bright flash of blue illuminates the cave in a beam of ice. The snake is fast, and the cave is completely dark, but a blast that big can’t be avoided. 

The other thing that happens is a jet of hot energy blasting from the blue lion, launching Lance through the top of the cave while effectively crumbling it around the beast. As soon as Lance breaks out to the surface, he coats the entire cave in ice as a precautionary. It’s slow and deliberate, and he can feel it eating up his lion’s energy. But like Shiro said, they didn’t want another Balmera situation.

Oh no, he was not playing this game again. This thing was going to be _sealed_.

The adrenaline of battle and near self-sacrifice faded much quickly than Lance hoped, and he slumped over in his seat, letting his lion gently yet gracelessly fall to the ground. The motion of hitting the surface again jostled him from his seat, eliciting another wave of pain as his leg hit the ground. If he couldn’t see his leg stretched out before him, Lance would have sworn it wasn’t even there.

He flicked the comms back on. “You can come down now,” he wheezed, fighting from succumbing to his exhaustion.

It wasn’t long before the team made its way down to the planet’s surface. Pidge immediately jumped from her lion to inspect the ice casing on the robeast and determine if it would hold. Lance knew she would create something to encase it either way.

The others made their way towards Lance’s lion. Hunk jumped out first and approached the blue lion. “Hey Lance, it’s all clear. The air is even breathable out here.”

Lance lay stretched out on his back against the lion’s floor, sweat rolling down his temple while he focused on keeping his eyes open and breathing steady. “Yeah,” he laughed, though it came out as more of a wheeze. “Not sure I can get out.”

“What does you mean?” Shiro inquired.

“Uh…” Lance trailed off. He almost wanted to say everything was fine, knowing that Shiro wouldn’t be happy about him taking on the robeast alone like this. “My leg is a little messed up. Not sure I can walk.”

Keith and Shiro joined Hunk, and the three of them approached the fallen lion. “What do you mean?” Keith asked. “Is it broken?”

Lance choked out a watery breath and swallowed back the nausea that had been building. He was so tired. “N...Not exactly.”

The blue lion opened her mouth for the others to enter, where they found Lance sprawled out next to his seat, breathing heavily. Shiro took in his twisted kneecap and winced.

“I think it’s dislocated. When did this happen?”

“When I crashed here. Managed to...get into my chair, but, uh. Not feeling so hot.”

Keith seemed alarmed at that. “And you didn’t tell us that when you crashed? We asked if you were okay!”

Lance attempted to smile. “And I had to make sure _you_ were okay. That robeast would have attacked you on the way down, and you wouldn’t have survived. It was the only way.”

Shiro sighed in frustration, but seemed to file the argument away for later. “How does your leg feel?”

Lance chuckled. “Well I can only feel half of it, so it’s pretty okay.”

Hunk and Shiro exchanged a glance. “We have to set it, _now_.”

“Yeah, could we not? I’m really not feeling up for that right now. Let’s just go back to the castle and you guys can knock me out and then do whatever you want.”

Hunk shook his head. “No, Lance, this is pretty serious. It’s not ideal, but we have to do this here.”

All of the humor seemed to drain from Lance, and he looked up to his team members with pleading eyes. “Please, you guys. I’ve lasted this long. It just...it hurts so bad. I can’t do this.”

“Well, you’re going to have to,” Shiro scolded. “Otherwise you’ll lose your leg completely, and take it from me, that’s a whole lot worse.”

Lance stared up at Shiro, who met his gaze coolly. Finally, Lance sighed, eyes misty with frustration at both of their situations. “Alright. Just get it over with.”

Hunk moved to grip Lance’s hip and leg to hold it in place, while Keith moved to his shoulders. “Just relax,” Keith advised. “It’ll be over in a minute.”

They both looked to Shiro, who nodded. He took a deep breath to steel himself before looking back to Lance. “On the count of three,” he assured.

“No,” Lance argued. “That’s just gonna make it worse because I’ll anticipate it. Besides, I know you’re going to do it on two so I don’t- _aahhh_!”

“Well, you didn’t anticipate it,” Keith agreed.

Lance’s back arched in an attempt to curl into a ball, but was held down by Hunk and Keith.

“Please,” Lance begged. “Please let go. Make it stop, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I lied, I’m sorry I fought this thing alone. I won’t do it again, just stop.”

Keith moved one of the hands holding him in place to run his fingers through Lance’s hair. Shiro moved to sit by Lance’s head and rested a hand on his shoulder in Keith’s place.

“I’m sorry, Lance. I know you didn’t mean to lie, or for any of this to happen. It’s over now, we can go back to the castle once Pidge makes sure it’s all okay. Then we can put you in a cryopod and you can fall asleep, and when you wake up it’ll be all done. You just need to stay awake a little longer.”

Tears leaked from Lance’s scrunched eyes and fell to the floor below. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

Shiro smiled sadly and held his hand to the side of Lance’s face. “I know, it’s okay. You did really well, you know? You stopped that thing all by yourself. I was wrong. You did a good job.”

Lance remained still, back rigid and eyes squeezed shut. The last thing he remembered hearing was Keith’s voice. “You’d better remember this bonding moment, jerk…”  
_

Everything was too cold, too hazy, too lost. His brain was fuzzy, and his joints ached, one in particular. Before he could stumble any further into this cold and confusing world, a pair of arms caught him. He blinked his tired eyes open to see Shiro holding him up. “Good to see you awake.”

Memories came flooding in. The beast, the crash, the chase, the explosion, the unbearable pain. He looked down to his left leg, and a wave of relief washed over him to see it all still there. Shiro watched with a slight grimace that went unnoticed.

“What happened after I blacked out?”

“We had to cut Pidge off early so we could get you back. She and Hunk are down on that planet right now trying to figure out what kind of containment device they’re going to build to make sure that thing doesn’t get out.”

Coran poked his head from behind Shiro. “Then you all came rushing back to the castle, and we patched you right up! I must say, I’ve never seen a human appendage look quite like that.”

Shiro grimaced. “Yeah. There’s a reason for that. Coran, could I talk to Lance alone for a minute?”

Coran looked to Shiro’s arm for a moment, then back to Lance’s leg, before nodding and walking out without a word.

Shiro looked to Lance, who was still staring at his leg. “What you did was really dangerous, Lance.”

“I know.”

“You shouldn’t have done that. I know you were trying to protect us, and I appreciate it, but we would have been okay.”

“You don’t know that. Also, don’t be a hypocrite. I know you would have done the same.”

Shiro didn’t have anything to say to that. He instead began walking Lance over to sit down at the stairs by the pods. “Come on, you shouldn’t stand on that.”

Lance looked back to his knee. “I thought it was fine now?”

Shiro shook his head. “It’s healed now, sure, but there’s still a lot of lasting damage. You can’t strain yourself for awhile, and even after that you need to be careful.”

Lance sighed. “That’s gonna make things harder, isn’t it?”

Shiro hesitated, looking down to his hand in his lap. “Yeah.”

Lance watched as Shiro turned the hand over, looking at it as if he was almost afraid of it. It seemed so seamlessly linked to Shiro that it was hard not to distinguish it as an alien object sometimes. Sure, Lance had seen him without the arm on from time to time, but he had never really stopped to consider what it must feel like to have that part of you replaced.

“How did…” Lance began, before trailing off.

Shiro sighed and closed his eyes. “Go on. Say it.”

“How did you handle it? When you realized?”

Shiro looked up and blinked at him. “You don’t want to know what happened?”

Lance frowned. “Of course I do, but at the same time, I...don’t. Can’t.”

Shiro smiled regretfully. “Yeah, I know how you feel.” He closed his eyes and took a long breath. “I didn’t handle it. At the time, there really was no chance to even consider it. I had to just ignore it in order to survive. I still haven’t really accepted it.”

Lance dropped his head to the floor, eyes darting for just a moment to the leg that almost wasn’t there. “Because it’s not you.”

Shiro turned to him. “What?”

Lance looked up. “Sure, it looks just like a real arm, and it works great for fighting and all that, but it’s not...you. It’s not made of you.”

“Yeah. I know.”

Shiro placed his hand on Lance’s left knee. They both just sat, watching, not saying a word.

Lance smiled. “Still pretty badass, though.”

Shiro laughed. “Definitely.”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh cool, a prompt about Lance dislocating his leg! Sorry, did you mean you actually wanted to see a weird snake monster and the emotional repercussions of amputation? I only really know about one of those things, so I apologize if any of this comes off as offensive or just inaccurate.
> 
> If it does, I would love for you to tell me so I can change or remove anything as needed! I am definitely not an expert, but I wanted to take more of a look at the others not really understanding Shiro until they sort of have to. But definitely tell me if something is weird over [on tumblr](https://zurela.tumblr.com/), or just if you really like this and want to let me know. Either way, go there and talk to me, please, I am hungry for ideas.


End file.
